Investment group urges more women in Amazon's senior ranks

By Jena McGregor, Washington Post

December 6, 2017

Photo: Willy Sanjuan, INVL

FILE - In this April 20, 2017 file photo, Roy Price, of Amazon Studios, left, arrives at the premiere of "I Love Dick" in Los Angeles. Price resigned from Amazon after a woman accused him of sexual harassment. (Photo by Willy Sanjuan/Invision/AP, File)

FILE - In this April 20, 2017 file photo, Roy Price, of Amazon...

In the wake of sexual harassment allegations against a now former Amazon executive, a group that advocates for investors sent a letter last week to the online giant, urging it to improve the diversity of its senior executive ranks, among other things. The letter is the second filed by CtW Investment Group, which works with union-sponsored pension funds, and a sign that some investors are growing concerned about the reputation hit companies could face from the recent flood of harassment headlines.

"We believe that the evidence suggests that Amazon's gender diversity gap creates significant risks for long-term shareholders, and that further delays in rethinking Amazon's approach to human capital management may have dire consequences," the organization's executive director, Dieter Waizenegger, said in the letter, which is addressed to Amazon chairman and chief executive Jeff Bezos. (Bezos owns the Washington Post.)

The letter also cites the perception of Amazon as "an excessively high-pressure workplace" and calls for the board to take a number of steps, from setting targets for gender diversity to having a labor-law expert review employment contracts. CtW, which says the pension funds it works with hold about 1 million Amazon shares, or 0.2 percent, also plans to submit a shareholder resolution.

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Richard Clayton, CtW's research director, said that one of the company's concerns with Amazon was the time lag between 2015, when producer Isa Hackett said she made complaints to the company about behavior by former executive Roy Price, and this October, when Price resigned from Amazon after being suspended by the company.

"Why was there was a two-year delay?" Clayton said. "We'd want to hear the board explain why that happened." (An email to a lawyer who is reported to represent Price was not immediately returned.)

The letter also cites the number of women Amazon has in senior executive roles, compared with other tech companies, and asserts that could have an impact on how the company addresses allegations. It cited numbers from a recent New York Times story, which reported that just one of the top 16 executives (6 percent) at Amazon, known as the "S-team," is a woman.

An Amazon spokesman declined to comment on the letter. In a statement previously reported by the Hollywood Reporter, where Hackett described her allegations, an Amazon spokesperson said "we take seriously any questions about the conduct of our employees," and "we expect people to set high standards for themselves; we encourage people to raise any concerns and we make it a priority to investigate and address them."